Backlash against new U.S. medal for drone pilots

February 15, 2013|Reuters

By Phil Stewart

WASHINGTON, Feb 15 (Reuters) - Should U.S. drone pilots orcyber warriors thousands of miles from the battlefield beeligible for a more prestigious combat medal than soldierswounded or killed in action?

The Pentagon concluded this week the answer is "yes" - atleast in extraordinary circumstances, and announced the creationof the Distinguished Warfare Medal, outranking even the BronzeStar.

While supporters cheered America's nod to the changingnature of warfare, it has triggered an angry backlash with someveterans and active-duty troops upset over the most substantialshakeup in the hierarchy of military medals since World War Two.

Opponents say the new medal's rank is too high and sends asignal - inadvertently, perhaps - that the Pentagon does notsufficiently value the sacrifices of front-line troops.

For Brian Jopek, whose 20-year-old son, Ryan, earned aBronze Star when he was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq in2006, the debate is intensely personal.

"To me it's just a slap in the face, not only for my son,me, other members of my family," Jopek, who also served in Iraqand is now a journalist in Wisconsin, told Reuters.

"But for anyone who's ever received (the Bronze Star) foractions in combat."

Jopek said he has written to President Barack Obama and tohis congressman, hoping the policy can be reversed.

The Veterans of Foreign Wars, which describes itself asAmerica's largest combat veterans' organization, stronglyobjected to the decision.

"Medals that can only be earned in direct combat must meanmore than medals awarded in the rear," John Hamilton, the VFW'snational commander, said in a statement.

Websites and blogs, including the VFW's Facebook page, werefilled with angry comments, some calling the new medal a "joke."

Advocates at the Pentagon and beyond say the new medal isplaying catch-up with reality.

"I've seen firsthand how modern tools, like remotely pilotedplatforms and cyber systems, have changed the way wars arefought," said outgoing Defense Secretary and former CIA DirectorLeon Panetta, announcing the medal on Wednesday.

"This award recognizes the reality of the kind oftechnological warfare that we are engaged in, in the 21stcentury."

Peter Singer, an expert on the new technologies in warfareat the Brookings Institution think tank, said it was aninevitability, noting there are now 20,000 unmanned systems, ordrones, in the air or on the ground.

"The U.S. Air Force now trains more unmanned systemsoperators than it does manned fighter plane and bomber planepilots combined," he said.

Juliet Beyler, the acting director of officer and enlistedpersonnel management in the Pentagon, said candidates for themedal could include a service member involved in a cyber attackon a specific military target.

"This is for direct impacts," she told the Pentagon'sAmerican Forces Press Service on Friday, adding the award wasretroactive to Sept. 11, 2001.

NO VALOR REQUIRED

To put it in context, the Distinguished Warfare Medal is theninth highest medal awarded by the Pentagon, higher than thePurple Heart for troops wounded in battle.

Chuck Hagel, the former Republican senator nominated tobecome the next U.S. defense secretary, was wounded in Vietnamand was awarded two Purple Hearts, for example.

The new medal is the only combat medal that a militaryservice member can receive without physically being in the samegeographic area where combat took place.

Previously, drone pilots who remotely guide missiles againstimportant targets in countries like Pakistan or Yemen would notqualify for combat awards because their acts technically lacked"valor" - a key requirement.

Valor, as defined by the military, involves extraordinaryacts of heroism "while engaged in direct combat with an enemywith exposure to enemy hostilities and personal risk."

The new medal is higher than the Bronze Star with a "V" forvalor. Only 2.5 percent of the more than 160,000 Bronze Starsawarded by the Army since Sept. 11, 2001, have been for valor,according to Pentagon data.

Medal of Honor recipient and Vietnam veteran Paul Bucha toldReuters the decision could affect morale, and noted thesignificance of the Bronze Star in the Iraq and Afghanistanwars.

"Are you saying that guy in the Pentagon did something Icould not have done, even though I was running around in thedesert? Where people could shoot at me?," Bucha said, summing upthe views of many veterans.